Chapter 1008 - The Zurglings
"Has he come here alone?!" Wyrstriker asked via the System Channel as he looked around and saw only the new and improved Forneus rampaging forward.
"Affirmative, the others are being teleported via the airbase and will make their ascent to the skies from there." The System replied, implying that Forneus was a one-time exception, especially since it had taken quite a considerable amount of energy to teleport the large beast into the middle of the warzone.
The major disruption of chi and magic in the air had caused the portal to be fairly unstable and the System had been required to apply extra resources and channel more processing capability to ensure that the portal would not break halfway during the teleport. That was one of the reasons why it did not usually portal monsters into the thick of battle (Another was that the cheapskate System lamented the loss of extra resources).
"Hey System! We could use some help here at the ground level too!" Pippy shouted as he killed another pair of Zurglings with the techniques that Zeru had taught him and his brother right in front of the Southern Capital gates. Unfortunately, the rate of killing was meaningless since the Zurglings were able to replenish their numbers right in front of him.
"Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!" A deep but yet bubbly sound came via the System Channel and suddenly Pippy heard a familiar falling noise from the distance.
"s.h.i.+t! All units fall back to the fortress post-haste!" Pippy ordered as he did a whirlwind slash to deter the Zurglings from coming close. His move also cut up any that were around him before he used his climbing gear to move back into the fortress.
One of the soldiers nearly mistook him for one of the sieging monsters and sent his spear flying towards him, but the Mousefolk with enhanced senses merely took that as a support for him to climb and run towards the soldier"s head.
"Watch who you are aiming your spear at!" Pippy berated him as he used the soldier"s helmet as another stepping stone (as payback) and descended further into the Southern Capital while covering his ears. At that point, that soldier was not only stunned by the kick from the one of the mousefollk but also the sights he was taking in right in front of him with the rumbling sounds of the ground and smoke emerging out in a series of shockwaves.
The white deserts had been painted with fireworks, extremely loud ones that scared the frontline troops and the Zurglings, causing them to look back momentarily. Those were courtesy of none other than Wolte. His Explosive Sh.e.l.ls rained down indiscriminately amidst the swarm of Zurglings.
The Zurglings cried out in pain and agony as they were burnt in the white desert and their corpses let out a rotting, expunging smell that covered the entire battlefield. However, that did not deter the Zurglings from fulfilling the command of their Zurgling Queen. Through the fire, they jumped into the fray of battle even though their skin got torched and the flames were searing into their bones. All that matters was their fulfilment to the orders of their Queen Mother.
As for the one responsible, she had been meaning to do attack the Souther Captial for a long time now but had lacked the courage to do so until the appearance of the Nine Ocean Phoenix"s and her beckon to raid the city. She knew that her Zurglings were numerous but against the well trained Southern Capital, they alone would not be enough to enact revenge.
They had defiled her own grandmother"s place of birth and the filthy humans were now using it as their own nesting area. The settlers of the past had taken advantage of the situation when the then Zurgling Queen"s developed nesting area had been attacked by a legendary giant beetle.
Aye, the history had been written by the victors.
The current generation of Southerners believed that their ancestors had built this place brick by brick, a monster part at a time. Yet in truth, before the Legendary Giant Beetle had been slain, it had travelled from continent to continent to satisfy its neverending hunger. Around 150 years ago, when it had once again come to feed on the Zurglings, the settlers had taken that chance to side with the Giant Beetle and had killed off most of the Zurglings. After all, the Zurglings of the past had not just been a nuisance to them, but the general population of the Southern Region.
Their meat while pungent had been the most nutritious meat they could ever find. Its blood not only aided with the recovery of injuries but the meat was filled with strengthening properties that allowed the Southerners to prosper to this date.
Most if not all of the Southerners survived with Zurglings meat and while it was a cycle of prey and predator, the table had turned during that particular battle where the Beetle and the Settlers managed to topple the at the time Zurgling Queen. At that point of the time, the then Zurgling Princess had already fled deeper into the Southern Region with a batch of elite Zurglings by first escaping into the seas and later surfacing at the other end of the Southern Region. But unknown to the Beetle who actually thought of the humans as a new form of ally, found itself being betrayed the moment it killed the Zurgling Queen.
The humans were after all settlers from the other three regions and some were reinforcements to fight against the Beetle who was said to arrive and ravage the ragtag settlement of the settlers. Only to their surprise, the beetle had returned to settle its score against the Zurgling Queen. That was when one of their leaders determined to use this chance as a moment of deception and created one of the best art of war in the history of the Farming World.
When the injured beetle found that it had been betrayed by the humans, it was already too late. The fight against the Zurgling Queen had undoubtedly been one of the craziest giant battles the Southerners had ever seen and it had lasted for days on end until the beetle had already revealed most of its tricks and skills. That was how the Southern leader took notice of its noticeable flaws and utilised it against itself during its fight.
While the beetle had a fighting chance against an army of battle-worn warriors, one which also took a heavy toll fighting against the Zurgling Queen, it did not expect that more reinforcements would come. Fresh troops from the three regions to put it down. And thus, with its corpse filled with highly valuable construction materials, the humans dissected and took the beetle apart to create the now Southern Capital.
The current Zurgling Queen was not empathising the Nine Oceans Phoenix as the role of the mother but rather the child who had experienced the human"s brutality and knew the type of consequences the Phoenix might have to go through if she lost her child.
Still, she did not understand why now there were monsters siding these humans especially when the call from the Nine Oceans Phoenix was extremely potent. Even the Phoenix herself was at a loss when she tried to contact the monsters that were fighting against the Zurglings through a telepathic mind possession technique but somehow there seemed to be a stronger ent.i.ty that was controlling them.
"Could the humans be that strong or is another Legendary Monster a.s.sisting them?" The Nine Oceans Phoenix feared for her kids even further.